From the Writing Desk:

We did it!!

The draft of the lower middle grade project I’ve been working on is complete. And since it’s a book about a circus, I had to make sure I went to my local magical circus to write the last chapter :)

I write by hand because it forces my brain to focus on the words, and so that I can claim the Magic Kingdom as a work space…

I’m very relieved to have it complete. It’s been much too long (years at this point) since I’ve finished a novel. Next steps are to get everything typed up and edited, then sent to beta readers for a quick dunce-check, then on to my agent. This book has been a joy, and I hope for really great things ahead for it. I can’t wait to tell you more.

(And show you more, because I’m going to attempt to pitch myself as illustrator for this one too…*gulp*)

Plus my adult novel is really calling loudly, so I’m excited to get this into someone else’s hands and move that adult book to the front burner.

The regular life things haven’t completely settled yet, but the pieces are there now, and hopefully that settling will happen this month.

Also, yesterday marks one year since Monster Tree hit shelves. If you haven’t gotten a copy yet, now is the perfect time!

I’m so, so glad it’s September.

Onward!

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Millions of views creating content for kids, with Sarah Maddack

Oh man, where to start.

So, we all know that social media is very often a cesspool, or a slop engine, especially in these days of majority ad/AI feeds.

BUT.

There is still a strong contingency of folks who use socials as a platform for true creativity and artistic expression.

Enter Sarah Maddack.

While there are some incredible creative people making beautiful work online, there aren’t terribly many making content for kids, and even fewer making content for the 7-12 ish crowd.

But Sarah Maddack does, and the people love it. She has over 260k subscribers on YouTube, 179k on Instagram, and approaching 1.5 million on TikTok, with nearly 30 million likes. She’s even gotten to collaborate with Larry the Cucumber!!

Wow.

She does it by creating delightful songs and raps that everyone in the family digs, and kids love memorizing the raps and lip-syncing the songs. I wanted to get a peak behind the scenes at how she does it, and her thought processes about creating for this group. I absolutely LOVED learning from her and seeing what she had to say, and I know you will too!

Welcome Sarah!

1: I love how fun and whimsical your songs are! It's clear that a ton of work goes into them, but they feel so light and breezy and at least for me, makes me want to write songs too! Did you take music lessons or are you self-taught? What is your process for creating and recording your songs?

Thank you so much!

My music background is a whole mix of things. I grew up singing with my sisters at church, and took basic piano lessons as a kid. I joined choir in high school, and taught myself guitar with a Guitar for Dummies book. That's when I started writing songs - some silly, some serious. I really don't know when I learned to rap - I just feel like I've always been able to! I think the biggest influence on my songwriting was how much my family made me fall in love with words as a kid. We're just all book people, and our sense of humor is constant wordplay and puns. I was also especially inspired by Shel Silverstein's goofy poetry books!

When I write songs now, it usually goes one of two ways. One way is me at my laptop with a blank Google Doc open and a song topic ready to go. This might be a suggestion from a follower or a topic I think would be fun to write about. Sometimes these songs are done in 15 minutes. Sometimes they take hours and I have several episodes of writer's block where I feel like the most uncreative bowl of oatmeal in the world.

Way number two is I'll be lying awake at night, or going for a walk, or making lunch, and BOOM - a catchy lyric and melody just pops into my head, I capture it with a voice memo, and the rest of it just starts flowing out. Those are my favorite moments, and I wish every song could be written that way.

2: You also create for a really interesting demographic--the best demographic imo, roughly 7-12 year olds. It seems to me, though, that this is a really underserved group when it comes to creator content because it's they're not fully teens or adults yet, but they're also not the preschool/Miss Rachel audience. In other words, it's a hard group because they're too young to necessarily interact with online but we're not really targeting their parents either. Any suggestions or tips for folks creating for this age group and navigating building that audience on these social media platforms?

I absolutely adore this age group. It's such a sweet time where kids are still kids that like kid things, but their unique personalities and interests are EXPLODING. How to best serve them is something I'm learning right now myself. They're my strongest audience on YouTube, and they love my character Jellybean the singing hamster. It sounds reductionistic, but they just love anything that's silly, weird, funny, and cute at the same time. They love participating and giving their creative ideas in the comments. They love filming themselves doing skits or little music videos to my songs where they get to act, especially for my song "Coffee Shop Bop". They love challenges, like being able to rap all the words to "Hey Slug", even though that's a super wordy song.

What I've found is a lot of them are watching with their parents - which I love and encourage! So I try to create content that can appeal to a whole family at once. I try to tow the line of not making it too "Dora the Explorer" (more like 6 years old and under audience), and also not too advanced or "adult talk" where kids are going to get bored.

3: Because of your songwriting you've had some amazing opportunities come up, like collaborating with Larry the Cucumber!! What other cool and/or unexpected opportunities have come your way because of your songwriting, and where do you hope to see your journey going in the future?

Making a video with Larry himself was a bucket list item I didn't even think to have until it happened. I still can't believe it. Mike Nawrocki is a super nice guy and so fun to work with.

This year, I got asked to fly to London to perform my Coffee Shop Song at a girl's Bat Mitzvah. I wish I could say I said yes, but it was too difficult as I'd recently had a baby! I did get to create a song about the girl and rap it to her in a video they played her, however. I was so honored someone would offer to fly me out there for that. I am also SO excited about something happening right now - I'm writing the theme song for a new animated preschool series! I can't say the name of it yet, but we just got the final version approved by the producer of the show. It's SO FUN.

As for the future, there are several things that sound fun to me. I would love to write more songs for movies or shows, or who knows, maybe my Jellybean character would have her OWN show! I also am obsessed with upbeat pop music in general, and would love to be on the writing side of pop songs for other artists someday. I've also been told a million times I should turn my songs into children's books, which I would love to do! Just don't want to add too much to my plate at once.

4: What is something quirky/strange that has been bringing you joy lately?

BEST QUESTION EVER. The immediate answer is my husband, a very quirky/strange person who is bringing me joy always. And he feels the same way about me! We are always laughing together about the stupidest/silliest things, and it's my favorite thing about our relationship.

Also, whenever I find an "incorrect" snack in a bag of snacks. Like whenever you find two Goldfish stuck together. For some reason this feel like a magical discovery to me and it tastes even better than the rest of the bag.

Thank you so, so much Sarah! Make sure to check out Sarah’s amazing songs on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube!

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What I’m Reading:

Look. This book had me from “ninety-year-old man who has never been kissed” and was as lovely and heartwarming and delightful as I hoped it would be.

What I’m Watching: So…I never, ever thought I’d be recommending a Hallmark-y1, TV movie here on the Smorgasbord, but I AM TODAY. Not only is it well-written, it’s Joss Ackland and Jean Simmons, so the acting and chemistry is *chefs kiss*. We all know I am constantly in search of mid-life/later-life romances (have been since age 12 idek smh) and this one was everything I wanted it to be. It’s on Prime, but also free on YouTube!

The Boredom Paradox: This was a really interesting take on how boredom now is different from boredom when we were kids, and what that means for our creativity.

What I’m Drawing: In August I posted an animal drawing/limerick a day for each letter of the alphabet. Maybe one of these days I’ll write about what I learned from forcing myself to post my silly drawings so consistently. This was Y :)

Also check out the bookish swag I’ve got up for sale in my new little swag shop!

“It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out.”

― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

Writing Opportunity: If you write long short stories in the roughly 3000-5000 word range, then Short Story, Long is worth looking at. Due Oct. 1.

Teacher’s Table

Some goodies especially for the teachers:

Why Gen Z is Going Mad for Dostoevsky via

Everything needed to get your young writers started is here in Tools Not Rules: A Writing Guide for Young Creatives.

Free activity sheets up on my Teachers Pay Teachers store! More added all the time, so check back regularly.

I am so, so excited and honored to now be on the roster at the Macmillan Speakers Bureau! For school and other events, you can find my speaker page here.

You guys are rock stars!

Thanks for coming along everyone! The best way to support is to 1) subscribe, 2) get a copy of the book bebes, and 3) keep glowing, you shining star you.

-Sarah

Links include Amazon Affiliate links where I may make a small commission.

Thanks for reading!

1

Zero judgement, I’m all for people enjoying whatever brings them joy, its just Hallmark type movies usually aren’t my thing.